Friday, June 15, 2007

Another jumble of stuff.

There appears to be some concern over a pattern to choose for the Strikke-Along. While anything goes, the book that triggered the whole idea is "Norsk Strikkedesign" from Unicorn Books. (Available, with other Scandinavian knitting goodies, from here.) After I suggested the idea, I flipped through the book again and realized the patterns are kind of insane. (Six, eight stitches to the inch, stranded color all over, often no regular pattern to memorize, or pattern repeats too large to remember.) Since I wanted people to join in - we've had enough of insane knit-alongs for the year with the Steeked Jacket craziness - I figured we should offer some other options.

Mittens would be a good project, if you're learning to do stranded color, and there are oodles of Scandinavian mitten patterns available all over the place. (Let me know, anyone, if you want suggestions.) Dale of Norway has hordes of patterns of varying difficulty, including summer things knit out of Svale, their lovely cotton/silk/rayon yarn. Elsebeth Lavold, while technically not turning out traditional stuff, bases her designs on Viking decoration motifs, and that sounds Scandinavian to me. Ditto for traditional Lopi patterns - Iceland was settled by Vikings, who took their sheep, so that's Scandinavian, right? And the Fair Isles, ditto for those, settled by Vikings and Viking sheep.

Really, if you want to do something simple, buy some scandinavian yarn of some kind (Dale of Norway is a personal fave, but it's a little pricey) and knit a plain old sweatshirt type sweater.

That probably didn't clear things up any, but it's something to think about.

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Remember "Knit from your Stash"? I get one pardon, right? I ordered the yarn for Tut, Tut today, and that was cool by the rules I set up for myself. But then I went nuts and ordered the yarn for this. Oh, and the color I got is Algiers Teal. I originally wanted to do it with the crochet edging, to force myself to learn crochet, but then I decided to enter it in the state fair, which means a knit-on lace edge of some kind or other (since the judges apparently have a thing for knit-on edges). But if it goes smoothly, I'm going to knit a mini version for The Baby (for her winter jacket - it doesn't get too cold around here) and THEN I'll do the crochet. I've gotta figure out how to do it. It's getting ridiculous.

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It's been raining here for most of the week, making my joints feel like I'm eighty years old. The workouts continue anyway, but I don't push it nearly as hard as I would otherwise. Ah well, it still beats sitting at home.

While it was raining the other day, I told the baby it was time to learn about meterology, and took her out in the rain. She couldn't figure out where the water was coming from. Very funny stuff.

5 comments:

Wow. That pattern at elann is GORGEOUS. Absolutely gorgeous. I may have to bookmark it just to gaze at it now and again, because I know it won't hit my list of projects. (Where would I wear something so pretty anyway? Sigh.)

I'm going to attempt my first charted knitting with the stranding this summer...I think. At least that's the plan. It's a pair of moose socks. Not so much Scandinavian as Maine Woodsman. But it's an effort at learning something new, right?

How nice that the Baby is learning about meteorology so soon. She will be able to support you in your old age with no problem whatsoever. She will have many, many marketable talents!

OKay...I've got a pattern book on Latvian Mittens that I'm very excited about...I'll post a link when we all get totally serious--I ordered a knit-picks palette because I'm such a flibbety-gibbet about yarn colors that I figured this would keep me from the poorhouse...

I"m planning something just nutsy-cuckoo insane. Because, you know, I don't have any stress in my life. (Gods, I'm excited aobut it!)

Backstory

I'm currently a stay at home mother, freelance writing on my off time, wondering how I became part of the ten thousand year old tradition of raising the kids while creating textiles.
I grew up in NE Ohio dairy country, married a sailor, lived in Hawaii ten years, lived in SC for five years, then moved back to culture shock and confusion.
Nothing but good times ahead.